SIT Study Abroad

I had never traveled abroad before choosing this program and I was worried that I would be completely overwhelmed. This couldn't be further from what happened. After a week I felt incredibly comfortable with my homestay family who were (and continue to be) warm, welcoming, and patient. The staff are incredibly helpful and encourage the students to seek unique opportunities be it in the community, in research, or elsewhere. They'll do whatever they can to make your study abroad experience amazing. Beyond that, Madagascar is a cultural whirlwind with delicious food, amazing community, and natural experiences you won't find anywhere else in the world. The team at SIT Madagascar are experts at guiding you through unfamiliar situations and helping you appreciate what's around as much as possible. I cannot recommend this enough!

This program was one of the best decisions of my adult life, and changed my life. The program directors were excellent, and I felt comfortable going to them for guidance with anything. They were crucial mentors to my college experience and I'm so grateful for their role in the program. The connections I made there were some of the most kind and welcoming and meaningful of my life, and it is my dream to return for work or school or research one day. The science and field work and community engagement was sent valuable to me in deciding what I want to do with my life, and I can't recommend this program more. It is definitely not your typical European study abroad, but it was perfect.

This experience was nothing short of life-changing. The nature of a program like this is to learn as much about yourself as you do the environment & climate change. Why is this? The nature of a program like this attracts independent, curious, and ambitious students who don't want a typical abroad experience, and brings them to one of the most sparsely populated and barren countries on Earth. If an experience like this sounds up your alley, it will change your life. I was heading into this abroad semester hoping to get some direction on where I wanted to focus my broad education in environmental studies, and getting exposed to so many disciplines and professionals across niches really gave me some idea of where to go. The students I studied with were wonderful, all independent like me, which was nice because we were all there for our own personal reasons, but we enjoyed each other's company and had so much fun together. On the homestays: If you are hesitant about the idea of living with a host family, I challenge you to embrace it with open arms. The Icelandic culture is so warm and humorous, and my host family filled me with so much laughter (and candy). The program director and assistant director were some of the warmest and most thoughtful educators, and I really can't say enough pleasant things about them. Overall, I learned so much during my semester abroad in Iceland and would recommend this program to anyone who is not afraid to spend some time alone with their thoughts, excited to seek out knowledge (this program requires you to be high agency to extract the most value), and ready to immerse themselves in a new and different culture. Overall 10/10.